Two Hats, One Head

Moving On

2008-08-29T11:11:00.001+01:00

In a rush of blood to the head I've decided on a blog move.

So you can now find me at Life, Faith and Role-Playing Games over with those folks at WordPress. See you there.

August's Antics

2008-08-28T22:09:00.001+01:00

Despite my best intentions the blog has still been moribund of late - but then again, it has been the holiday season. And, once again, I've had the phenomenon of a highly broken August. In the ideal world I should just take a huge swathe off, even if it would take nearly all my annual leave at once, in practice that isn't necessarily an option.

This year I spent the first weekend of August in Leicester at my biennial RPG convention, then back for a few days in a generally shattered condition, which did not endear me to GLW, LM and LMP - especially as that was the week we were stressed-out running the holiday club. Thence 3 nights under canvas on the Isle of Wight in a rather hastily-organised family holiday (in the only slot we could find, after earlier in the year we'd said we could do without). Then a few more days work, coupled with a visit from LM's godparents, before ferrying GLW, LM and LMP to Granny and Grandpa's house while I returned before heading off for another tented adventure, Greenbelt. Swiftly followed by a trip from Cheltenham back to collect the family from the wilds of North Yorkshire and then back into harness for an unusually busy day (today) and preparation for two-thirds of this year's weddings and a regular Sunday service.

So, watch this space and I'll try to put in some more details and even some half-reasonable reflections on August's Antics - and if not here, because I' half-thinking of a change of name/blog host, then I'll let you know where....

To Greenbelt

2008-08-21T13:33:00.002+01:00

Says it all really! Hope to see some of you there, and to report back here anon about the experience of speaking there for the first time, albeit as a panellist in the Youth Programme.

Now, how on earth did that happen?

And when I get back, I might, just might, find time to blog a little more often. (Well, we can hope!)

Of Diggers, Gowns, Dreams and a Garage.

2008-07-21T11:12:00.007+01:00

"It has been a quiet week in Lake Woebegon"... so spoke Garrison Keillor as his introduction to every laid back portrait of life in the fictional American Mid-West - but it certainly doesn't apply in my parts of East Midlands University Town!

It may well be that time of year when you might expect life to be slowing down a little for the summer (with the possible exception of weddings), but actually both Uni and Parish have got busier. I'm told that tiredness and lethargy are normal signs of bereavement, but that can't be the whole answer. Even shifting 2000+ inherited CDs feels like only a small part of it! There's simply a lot going on.

In the world of Higher Education there has been the delight of a ~~Team Building Day~~ Jolly at the local agricultural college. Lots of clay pigeon shooting, agricultural fork-lift driving, caterpillar-tracked diggers and an All Terrain Vehicle carefully rigged to ensure you went the opposite way to the one you steered! I'm not quite sure how, but our team won decisively on the day. (Note to Bishop: I hereby recommend that all stressed clergy should be given one free day a year of shooting, digging, lifting and driving in a similar way - an ideal pick-me-up!)

Then there was the fun of graduation, including managing to get a free lunch from the Management Centre (verdict: good, but could do better) and the exercise of my prerogative as a member of staff to robe up and process! So out came the scarlet and grey doctoral gown and the obligatory silly hat with tassel. I was interested to note that some of my fellow robed rogues looked somewhat uncomfortable in their regalia (so there is a benefit to robing in church on Sundays!) and even more interested to note that I appeared better qualified than at least two of the geographers with whom I was processing. (Memo to institution: find money to enable them to do more research, it will pay dividends!)

Add to that the unexpected invitation a couple of months back to apply for funding for Chaplaincy work and it has not only made a serious difference to the amount of money for projects (and hence need for management) but also the amount of time required for paperwork in putting together funding bids - which it would appear are not actually going to be read, so desperate was the division concerned to use up their budget at the end of their financial year! I'm just a little bemused at how much they seem to be throwing about, even to the extent of questioning half-seriously whether there's enough for the place to pick up a half-time Chaplaincy post cost...

Parish stuff is similarly busy - good weather, or the expectation of it, has brought to the fore a number of Saturday events: school fetes, churchyard cleaning parties, church garden parties. All of which have their place, but all of which squeeze the available hours tighter, especially as I try to be Daddy and Husband. I suppose I should also add Son to that and so cover a trip with LM on the train to Mum's to collect Dad's car, which I have inherited. I don't wish to sound ungrateful, and I know we will use it occasionally for holidays and long journeys, but if I wasn't inheriting some money too I wouldn't be able to run it. Still, I'm in no danger of leaving my little car unused - Big Blue is an automatic, and I really don't like automatics. Practical, sensible, hopefully reliable, dependable and all sorts of other things ending in -ible, but also dull.

In fact more than once I've wondered whether I'm beginning to have a little mid-life crisis. All I want to do is spend money that don't have, on things that I don't need and might never have the time to use. Humph.

Still, in my way of leaving the best, or at least the intended topic, until last... Yesterday I had a further piece of conclusive evidence of the existence and intervention of God. The church council meeting, which I felt not quite prepared for, and which would touch on areas I thought might be difficult. I was ready for a "full and frank exchange of views" as diplomatic communiques would put it. Well, I think there was, and it was far more constructive and far-reaching than I had expected. To go into discussion with questions about relatively minor issues about how to be most welcoming to visitors, as well as rather larger legal implications of making church accessible (that's physically accessible as in ramps etc rather than linguistically accessible) and to look for a coherent feel of direction for the future, well they're all potentially emotive and difficult issues.

All I can say is that God must have been at work, both then and in the past months, because out popped a resolution to move towards significant changes. I want to write more, but mustn't. Simply let the reader of ecclesiastical persuasion understand and apply their Faculties.

Recently our lectionary readings have had Jesus exhorting those who have ears to hear. I think we have. To one another, to those around us, and to him. And I am sure that my half-formed prayers have been heard, and my dreams and visions may just after all have not been the imaginings of my fevered brain.

The only immediate questions I need answered are what to do with all those CDs... and how on earth to get Big Blue in the garage. But if God can bring us, his people, together like he did yesterday, surely those are trivial.

What's in a Name?

2008-06-10T11:47:00.001+01:00

This isn't one of those theological posts about the names of God and their meaning, no matter how instructive that might be. No, I just did an assembly in my local school and was once again gently surprised by the names of some of the children. Not just the "ethnic" ones, of which I have very little knowledge, but of the apparently white British - the names in this case being American States. A lad named Dakota (and I have to confess that my immediate mental response, before I knew the gender of the child, was that the middle name would have to be Sue - you either get it straight away or you don't: the Dakota Sioux were one of the native tribes) with a sister called Arizona.

It made me wonder about what English or British placenames might be abroad. An American family naming their children Surrey, or Essex perhaps? Then again we shouldn't forget the cricketer Devon Malclom. Even so, I just hope nobody out there has been lumbered with the much- maligned Salop!

All Good Things come to an End

2008-06-06T18:33:00.003+01:00

Gordon Donald Harrison
2 December 1938 - 6 June 2008

As good a Dad as anyone could wish for. Not perfect, because none of us are, but my Dad, and that's enough. I owe so much to him for making me who I am.

Changes and chances

2008-06-04T09:50:00.002+01:00

It has been a long time since I've blogged, I'm fully aware of that. Just like it's been a while since I visited a number of old haunts and habits (all of them good, I hasten to add).

Sometimes though, it seems as if lots of changes all come together. It might even represent a Paradigm Shift, but I doubt it. I do know that sometimes you can't see the scale of the change until you're on the other side of it, or them, as the case may be.

My few regular readers will know my predeliction for Role-Playing Games and Imagination as my primary mental escape from "reality" (although some might say the same of my faith and occupation!) So folks will have read about my creative endeavours with varying degrees of (dis-)interest and marked the movement over the years. (And, yes, scary thought that it is, it is years).

The first change has been that I have left Eshraval, again. I did rejoin after this post, and it was great fun; liberating to simply be a player and not an administrator, to re-discover an older setting I'd written and bring it into play, and even to meet a lot of old friends returning for the latest version. The problem? Trying to keep up with it all. If you've never been involved on a really active bulletin board it may be a little hard to understand, but it's a bit like a large number of written conversations, all happening at once with barely a break for breath. Simply to keep up with things is hard enough - and to make a considered response to one line of thought can easily mean discontinuing another. Small wonder then that there are multiple conversations becoming dormant daily, new ones starting and others being reawakened all at once. It's like one vast chaotic machine that achieves a degree of forward motion while probably generating more noise than movement. Vibrant, stimulating and all-encompassing, nearly all the time. And that was before the activity requirements of actually developing details of a nation on out own wiki!

I don't quite know how, but I just came to realise I couldn't sustain it any more. Maybe stopping and taking the time (over a number of days) to read a book in the same room as the family had something to do with it. But whatever the reason it's been time to call it a day.

Then at home, I've decided to give up alcohol for the month. I will not buy and consume any alcohol. (I have to do Communion wine, but you know what I mean). I've been growing a little worried about how much I've been drinking, and the manner of it, for a while now (mostly at home, and not in the company of other drinkers), so I think a month to detox would be a good idea. Maybe the low-level headache that's been around for the last 24 hours has something to do with that!

That said, it could have more to do with another event in the family, with Dad having had a heart attack on Sunday night. He is as well as can be expected, but it was a particularly nasty shock for those who were with him, and I think the scale of it might now be beginning to hit him too. I have three observations that come to mind in the light of it and my visit to hospital on Monday afternoon - three shocks, or surprises, in reverse order of significance.

Least, but still a shock, was the price of fuel! I don't drive very far which means there is often at least a month between trips to the petrol station - but £1.15 a litre is frightening.

Secondly, I was most surprised at hospital not by Dad, because if you're in hospital you're there because you're not well - and anyway in my line I've visited many folks in hospital, and nearly all have looked rather a lot worse than he did. Actually I was most surprised by Mum, the degree of concern and simple fear, which I'm sure are a direct reflection of the love and care of a long marriage. If anyone needed me there on Monday it was her, not Dad.

But the biggest shock? Driving the familiar route past the old Peugeot-Talbot Factory at Ryton on the outskirts of Coventry. Or more accurately, driving past the site of it, because it stands no longer. All that remains is a very large leveled area with a few neat piles of rubble and a number of parked bulldozers. I knew that it was due for demolition, but to see it just gone was eery and somewhat un-nerving. A landmark that I've known for the best part of 25 years simply gone.

It might seem a little flippant, but it's the truth, and maybe something of a living parable. After all, it's one thing to know that the price of petrol is going up and that we all need to make changes to adjust. Just like it's one thing to acknowledge that we are mortal and that we will all die one day, as well as losing loved ones along the way. My reaction to Dad's heart attack is a little like my reaction to the rise in petrol prices. It's been something I've been half-expecting for a number of years (both as a consequence of his increasing age, and the family history, since his Dad, my Grandpa Tom and the link with Northampton, died of a heart attack at 72). A shock, but not an enormous one.

The demolition, however, of a longstanding and familiar landmark, a friend along the road of many years standing (and no-one could ever say the old car plant was an architectural wonder) must be a fairly good analogy of bereavement, or the fear of bereavement, felt by those caught up in the actual events, rather than my rather more distant experience.

And the return to the old habits and haunts I wrote of at the start of this post. Well, I'm posting on another, rather quieter bulletin board again (The Tavern), and have picked up a new writing project for Glorantha (albeit at a much more comfortable pace - a magazine article based on stuff I've already written with a deadline of October. Rather more sedate than the expectation of weekly, if shorter, articles for Eshraval!) These are simply reflections of the changes in my life too. When I was down in Kent the post was stressful, but not busy, and so the need for something to give immediate engagement was attractive. Here, back in the East Midlands, with 2 growing children (and 2 growing jobs!) the rather more leisurely pace of leisure and writing can only be helpful.

And any other old habits and haunts? Well, I need to find an RPG group that's for sure (and I have a contact to follow up) and, of course, I've written this, haven't I?

The Sweetest Mystery*

2008-05-18T13:31:00.005+01:00

So, Trinity Sunday - and the first blog entry for... too long. And rather like the day, indeed the phenomenon itself, I have no excuse to offer other than experience. The early church sought to interpret their experiences, and doing so 'invented' the Trinity, needing to find a word to express an as-yet un-named truth.

In a similar manner the word "busy-ness" must describe my recent dearth of postings. Not specifically too much "work" nor a lack of opportunity, but instead the lack of energy, inspiration and motivation, all of whom are fellow-travellers with that strange beast known as Real Life.

After all, there are plenty of good things to report such as the instigation of services in (near enough) the same language as the rest of the world two Sundays a month. Or the providential appearance of a young Orthodox priest on the staff of EMUT university and a willingness, nay a desire, to be involved in Chaplaincy. There are birthdays to report, a sixth, and a 'significant' one, beginning in a number greater than 3 and less than 5 and ending in a zero. Then there's the re-engagement of the creative brain with the community that is Eshraval, or the new PCC, or... you get the picture.

However, in the mean time, I offer this, another of David's poetic takes on life and the life of faith:

TRINITY SUNDAY
        
         Nothing happened today.
         He was not born, nor led out to die.
         He did not rise nor ascend on high.
         He sent no Spirit upon the Way.

         Today he is.
         His eternity, not his event, we celebrate.
         Awesome to behold and contemplate,
         The God who is.

         No words can describe his measure,
         No metaphor fully explore
         The majesty we rightly adore
         And earthily treasure.

         Holy three times and more,
         Disclosed to us, withheld from us,
         Letting us glimpse, saving more for us,
         Deeper knowledge yet in store.

         How can we encapsulate in a sum
         The one who cannot be described,
         Yet who himself has fleshed and scribed,
         Who was and is and is to come?


(C) David Grieve

*bonus points will be awarded for giving me the name of the writer of the chorus of the same name!

The point of it all?

2008-04-11T14:23:00.003+01:00

While I was seeking to get into postgrad education I got into a habit of regularly buying the Times Higher Educational Supplement. I fondly remember it as a restrained newspaper, interesting, informative and occasionally incomprehensible.

I've started getting it again - but it's not the same. It is no longer the restrained Times Higher, instead it has re-invented itself as THE, a glossy magazine. I don't think I'm especially reactionary, but I find it hard to see the point. The pictures don't appear to actually add any value to the text and the best I can say is that it's easier to read over lunch.

I have to admit the cover article on how lecturers cope with student despair is a worthwhile read though - and curiously lacking in any mention of the role and place of Chaplaincies within staff and student support. Another sign of the times, perhaps?

On Hospital Visiting and (O)Mission Statistics...

2008-04-08T10:19:00.002+01:00

On the delights of Hospital Visiting.

Yes, there is irony in the title. I have no objections or problems with visiting (even if all too often by the time you find that someone has been in hospital that they're actually out!). Except that is on the first ever visit to a previously unknown hospital. In which case events will go something like this.

1. Find the hospital. It will inevitably be where the road maps say it is, but you are taken by a very strange route if you follow the road signs.

2. Find the way into the car parks, whose signs are usually obscured or made more difficult to read by the dozens of cars illegally parked on the roads outside. There is a high probability that you will miss the turning.

3. Find a Visitors' Car Park. Take especial care over car parks that are "staff only" for some of the day, but "visitors' use" at others. There is a high chance that the signs are out of date and/or mutually contradictory.

4. Find a parking space, which may entail up to 15 minutes of driving round in circles, possibly through multiple car parks. (see 3)

5. Find a working ticket machine. The one nearest to you will not be operational. This may entail a trip on foot to other car parks, and the worry about whether tickets are valid between car parks.

6. Find the correct change, or the nearest estimation. This will inevitably be an extortionate amount of money, for far longer than you need, enabling you to pop into Out-Patients for a quick Chiropody session should you so wish. (You may think the money would have been better spent on a couple of cans of beer, though. See 9).

7. Find an entrance to the hospital - which is not always obvious. Once you find a plan you will inevitably discover that you have parked the furthest possible distance from the ward or department you seek. Gird your loins.

8. Your route will take you past the canteen. You will feel hungry. You will discover you have spent all your change in the ticket machine.

9. Find the Ward. No matter how well you think you have planned you will discover that Visiting Hours for that one ward, and possibly that one ward only, are different from the ones you were given, and the doors were closed about the time you found the hospital.

10. Retrace your steps, which in God's providence will have led you past the Chapel. If God is feeling merciful there will be a Chaplain present, so you can let them know who you were trying to visit!

Of course, once you've made a few visits you know all the pitfalls - which is when the hospital will start playing the game known as "Pass the Patient". This serves purely to amuse the hospital CCTV operators - and to enhance the ticket machine revenues!

(O)Mission Statistics
I will admit to not being the most organised of people on occasion, but there are limits. I have finally managed to start work on the wonderfully mis-named documentation known as "Statistics for Mission" - or more accurately Statistics of Attendance. Every church should have the following sorts of records: a service register, a baptism register, 2 wedding registers and (possibly, and I'm still a little hazy on this, as I've only recently remembered its existence) a funeral register.

Each year you are sent a form to record numbers, the requests for which seem to get longer every year but for 2007 include:

Baptisms
Thanksgivings for the birth of children
Marriage
Wedding Blessings
Funerals
Easter and Christmas Communicants and Attendants
Church Attendance in October (both Sundays and Week days)
Adults working (in a parochial capacity) with older young people)
Attendance on a "normal" Sunday
Church Membership as stated on the Electoral Roll.

This form is accompanied by a further sheet of Notes, printed on jolly coloured paper. Note: there is nothing jolly about these notes!

Then, of course, there are the mistakes (and no errata). For example someone has forgotten to change a date in the statistics form from last year to this one, just in case you weren't already confused. And, of course, the numbers of the Notes on the Notes Sheet don't correspond with the expectations of the request form.

But all this is simply preparatory. Even if you have all the required registers, and even if they are filled in correctly, you still cannot answer the questions correctly unless you have kept supplementary records!

Figures entered into the Service Registers don't at least in my, Parish include the clergy. That's not too difficult to mentally amend. We are even encouraged to discount folks who have attended twice on the same day - which is fine if the person compiling the register attends all the services.

Consider, however, the following statement, which relates to both Easter Eve and Easter Day and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as a two single required figures (and I quote):

In the attending worship boxes please enter the total number of people that attended worship... Please include all people: communicants and those that did not communion; adults, children and young people; clergy and laity. However, as far as is possible, each person should only be counted once even if they attended more than one service.

This can only be done if far more detailed records are kept than provided for in the register books - and most folks would be rather worried if their presence were recorded by name. Yet this is pretty much what is required to maintain any degree of accuracy, even, or maybe especially, in a small church.

There is no way I, or anyone else, can realistically remember how many of the 55 or so adults (of which 30 received Communion - or is that 31 including the vicar?) who attended Christmas Midnight Service were among the 12 adults (all of whom received Communion - and again, what about the Vicar) at 9.30am on Christmas Morning. Of course there will be some duplication, but short of taking extensive (and time consuming records) at the time, who knows?

This might seem petty. After all, surely what we need is the general picture. But if the general picture of the Church of England is comprised of small to medium size parishes (as I believe it is) the statistical effect of the inevitable estimations and errors this will produce will result in statistics that are at best seriously flawed, and at worst, totally unrepresentative.

Me. I'm off to church to sit in a cold vestry and do the best I can. Spare a prayer would you please?

Ouch or "Curiouser and Curiouser" said Alice!

2008-04-07T11:08:00.003+01:00

One of those bizarre news stories that break the routine!

Life would be far more boring without the dear old BBC.

Faith, Creativity and Loss

2008-04-03T10:25:00.002+01:00

As I'm sure many of my long term readers will remember I am a fan of Role Playing Games, and, it must be siad, other related forms of creativity. Every so often I blog a few reflections on these, and how Christian life and faith interacts with them. Many of you might also remember how such creative writing often absorbs much, and possibly too much, of my spare time, both the odd moments and concentrated periods of the day off or quiet evenings. It is, no doubt, a form of therapy and relaxation. There have always been questions about where Christian faith sits with such a pastime - and many years ago I found myself under pressure from certain zealous fellow Christians to not only give it up but even go so far as to be told I needed deliverance ministry!

Nevertheless as we are made in the image of God, who surely possess the greatest possible of imaginations in conceiving the entire created order it seems totally consistent to engage that germ of creativity planted deep within each one of us. Individually the hardest issue for me is how I feel generally incapable of turning that to distinctly Christian ends, unless most simply expressed in the "how about we do this" sort of idea. (Ideas which I freely confess I often lack the means of bringing to completion!) Nevertheless, such ideas seem very shallow compared with the challenge of creating a complete virtual nation or world, combining my knowledge, both already known and learned along the way, with my profligate imagination. In two ways it's fair to say, in the language of the King James Bible, that such things are "vain imaginings." They are vain in the fact that they are not directed towards the glory of God in any other way than to employ the gifts and skills I possess - although if we were to judge all things by that criterion we could find ourselves in a dangerously joyless and staid world, somewhat like the mindset that can hold certain types of churches in its grasp! Likewise they are vain in the sense that I, and I suspect many other like-minded writers and sub-creators wish their work to be valued by others. I've siad before of the thrill of having some of my material published, if only so far in a fan-publication. But this is predominantly background to this post - which is as much a piece of personal therapy as theological reflection.

I am, at moment, grieving. Nothing as severe as the sense of loss brought about by the death of a family member or friend, but still a bereavement of sorts. Over the past few weeks I had come to the conclusion that it was time for me to reluctantly drop out of the Eshraval geofiction project, with which I've been associated since April 2006. I had stepped back, gone on holiday and realised that I actually wasn't missing it. I'd taken the laptop, expecting to do some creative writing and never actually turned it on. So yesterday, having spent several days trying to work out how to best withdraw, since my nation had had quite an important historical place in the world, if not in the present, I was prepared to formally resign, only to discover that there had, over the last few days been a very quick (to my mind) decision to scrub a lot of fundamental stuff and start again. (I might be over-stating the case as I haven't read everything posted over the last weeks, another indication of the time-eating nature of the hobby). Here was my golden chance to withdraw, with minimum disruption to the project.

However, my feelings are very mixed. Leave aside the fact despite being an Administrator nobody had actually bothered to contact me until quite late in the proceedings - to be fair I hadn't been able to pull my weight. Even leave aside a general, vague unease about some things over recent weeks. One of the hardest things will be the loss of relationships. I have never physically met any of the players, but feel I do know them, at least more than superficially, since we have talked of faith, politics, life and so on. But maybe other reflections are more important on a spiritual/conceptual level. And I don't think any are premeditated, either. It simply struck me as I was pondering over these things last night that although I'm the sort of person who rather likes fairly tightly defined boundaries within which to work, both in real life and in terms of creativity, that I was one of the founding group of people who'd shaped the game world. I wouldn't claim to be the most important by a long way, but I'd been there pretty much constantly.

Yet now, with a goodly number of different players and the dropping out of a lot of "old hands" there was, for lack of better words, a dissatisfaction with the way of things, leading to a decision to change them. It is, I suspect, a reflection of the fundamental human desire to be in control. To learn from the best of the past and create anew. To start again filled with hope. Which is all well and good - apart from the fact that we started again with hope a mere 9 months ago. I'm sure that the hope is that a good deal of the material can be transported to the next incarnation of the game, but the net effect is still that thousands of words, and hundreds of hours of creative effort has, at a stroke been rendered obsolete, even effectively declared worthless. And that hurts. When you write for pleasure, whether for possible publication or not, it is possible to salvage material. Indeed I have megabytes of materials on my hard drives for different RPG systems. I delight in re-reading them every so often, and may use bits of them again. What makes creativity special for me, particularly with Eshraval, is that it takes place in a co-operative environment. You cannot create a nation that feels in any degree real unless there are interactions with the wider world. Solo creativity cannot beat that. (Possibly here's a place for reflection to on the nature of God as Trinity, three interconnected and interdependent aspects in relationship...?)

I also wonder whether the latest "revision" and perceptions of it have something to do with relative age. I know that I was one of (if not the) oldest players. With age there are added responsibilities that younger players do not have, most often with regards to work and family commitments, and those inevitably colour things. What may seem only a small amount of effort to the sixth form or university student maybe very different for the "family man." I suspect that the same happens in our lives of faith too. For Esh at least I'm no longer sure I'm willing to invest the hours I did, especially when it seems so casually wiped away. (And that is not an established fact by any means). But now I'm beginning to drift, and I have work to do. Nevertheless this is still important.

Let's just say that this morning I'm a little sore. Aware of my inabilities and inefficiencies, that which I have not done which I feel I ought to have done, even if I couldn't. Wanting to return to a past which has now gone. Tempted to join in the latest great future - and fully aware that I really should sit out for a few months and then consider re-joining, yet actually feeling a degree of obligation towards friends and colleagues. Definitely bereavement of sorts.

If any fellow (ex-)Eshers out there are reading this know that I'll miss you, and it. In the mean time, I wonder quite where my creativity will lead me next?

Classy April Fool

2008-04-02T22:30:00.003+01:00

I'm sure you've heard of this, or seen this by now, but if you haven't, treat yourself with the BBC's Flying Penguins!

The Man Rules

2008-03-29T12:01:00.002Z

Nothing to do with Easter, or holidays. Just a good, clean laugh, culled from a post on a friend's Facebook profile. It makes me laugh, and the Good Lady Wife too, so it can't be bad!

The Man Rules-------------------
At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down

Finally , the guys' side of the story. We always hear " the rules "
From the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules!
Please note.. these are all numbered "1 "
ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports : It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials..

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you
don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine...
Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss
such topics as baseball , or Football, or golf, or Sex . (Or in my case computers and roleplaying games)

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;
But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

I haven't the foggiest

2008-03-20T13:41:00.002Z

Just to continue proving that I am alive, two news stories that have just caught my eye on the good old BBC website.

Firstly, proof that I'm growing older, with the news of the death of one of the quiet men of comedy, Brian Wilde, aka Foggy. For several years while I was at primary school I fondly remember The Last of The Summer Wine not for it's content, but simply for its name - the programme to be in bed by on a Saturday (or was it Sunday?) evening. Not the worst way in the world to go though, by any means.

And the second? Well, it would appear that a crematorium is set to offer podcasts of funeral services. Given that many crem funerals are at best uninspiring (a bit like most crematoria themselves) I can't really see such a massive market for 'virtual funerals.' And more to the point, are minister's fees inclusive of Performing Rights (or should that be performing rites?) After all it's frustrating enough to know that the organist's fee exceeds the minister's already....

Ho hum. Back to work.

Signs of the Times

2008-03-15T10:52:00.002Z

At some time in the distant past I wrote, either in the old blog or even in my journals, something about those A4 posters that used to appear about this time each year, printed in red on white, with a picture of the crucified Christ, if I remember correctly, saying "This is Holy Week." (Ring any bells?) Even then I wondered if many people actually understood them.

So when I had an envelope appear through my letter box this morning, A4 sized, from my Church Secretary, I wondered if the same thing had struck here.

What could it be? What was it that I was being asked to encourage people to put in their wondows? Posters to advertise the forthcoming car boot sale, the greatest source of income for our little, and still lead-challenged, parish. How times change!

I might not be very keen on the practise, but I've yet to deliver on a suitable alternative...

(Then again: it's interesting how many people have said to GLW that they thought the church was not in use any more. I wonder what the criteria are for that impression? Could it be that they only see the words "Services by arrangement" relating as it does to Evening Services on the noticeboard -I think that's what they say - while writing down the Vicar's telephone number? )

Hmm. Something else to ponder.

Technophilia Sorely Tested

2008-03-10T21:49:00.003Z

(Activate rant mode)

Well, I'm alive, honest. I've just had not a lot to say.

Except now perhaps. I'm using my lovely new cellular modem, a natty little USB device set up for a modest sum of £10 a month to get me 1 Gigabyte of downloads. Plenty there, I thought, for the times I will use it. After all - I have home broadband, don't I?

Well, at the moment, no. Not for the last few days. Presuming that the diagnostics on the modem/router (a BT Voyager 205 for the techie types out there) are correct, the problem is with the phone line. So thank God for the cell modem.

That's nuisance enough, even getting that far with Holy Week, Easter and the like looming.

So, think I, I'll just sort out an expenses claim for the first two months of the year.

Ha. Firstly I find that BT are still billing me for my previous telephone line (kept to smooth the transition) but sending the bills to this address. I've already paid one without noticing. Now another one has shown up. OK, I can figure that into the accounts and claims.

I find a BT bill (already paid, including a £99 repair fee from last time - long story). But then, as if for the first time I see it was far larger than it should have been as I'm paying Tiscali for an inclusive calls and (currently non-existent) Broadband package.... and BT at the same time, and have been since October!

So I dial up the shiny new modem to check. Online bank statements confirm the Tiscali billing. My email works fine. So why when I try to log in to check my bills with them does it tell me I don't exist?

I really don't need this now!

What I do need is a drink!

(terminate rant mode)

Damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't

2008-02-09T11:14:00.000Z

Being a short response on the latest travails of an archbishop.

It's the recurring problem of a leader, a hugely-intelligent and thoughtful leader, finding that actually all people want are soundbites and stereotypes.

Most of the population, and much of the press, it would seem, don't actually want to use their brains! Never mind the fact that the interview which precipitated all this comes on the back of a densely-worded and highly thoughtful 8000 word public lecture. Never mind the distinction between the principles of Sharia law and some of the rather heavy-handed punishments handed down by Islamic courts in some parts of the world.

Archbishop Rowan, and many Christians can't win: we try to engage with real issues with depth and sensitivity - and find that we're told we should stay out of them. Then in the next breath we're told to be more active in wider society and help find solutions, not problems.

As long as our answers are acceptable to the everyone else, that is. In which case they are not answers, simply mere affirmations.

There was someone else who found that as well: he was called Jesus.

A good start?

2008-02-07T09:32:00.000Z

"...whenever you begin any good work, beg most earnestly of Him to perfect it..."

I'm very good at starting things, and pretty appalling at finishing them. I tend to sit fairly closely to the principle that most people are content with 75%, or even less, and therefore never claim perfection.

The passage which struck me this morning from the Rule of St Benedict is elementary. It is both simple and profound, and for someone like me, with a tendency to rush into things and forget the basics, is profoundly challenging.

To speak of beginning a good work also implies, to me, that we have an awareness of the nature of that work at the very outset. It is certainly true that we can have a very strong awareness of when something we are about to do is not good, selfish or even evil. Whether we can assess all the potentials of our works is, I think, less certain, as is a genuine grappling with starting a course of action which may be good, but about which we are unsure.

All the better then to engage in the second phrase, to beg of Him (God), "most earnestly to perfect it".

To commend good intentions to God seems pretty obvious, yet is still something I can easily fail to do. In the need to fulfil the regular commitments, the sermon or the meeting, the temptation remains to simply get on with it, and to trust that the God we serve in Jesus will bless it and bring it to fruition. And yet, that is a misapplication of faith, a presumption - and I do it all the time.

And neither is it enough to simply pray. There are times, true enough, when an "arrow prayer," a quick, immediate prayer, is the only possible or practical response. This is not really the case, however, in beginning a good work, if that is, we take work to be something of an extended nature.

I was preaching last night in the Ash Wednesday service, based upon Isaiah 58 and Matthew 16, that real prayer, like real fasting, is a time-consuming and costly business. And it's true. What better way than to seek to begin, and to hallow, to consecrate, a work of good intention. How much does the very action of the prayer transform the practice, I wonder?

And finally, notice what we are encouraged to seek of God's involvement in the task. Completion? The drawing of a line according to our standards of a job well done? No. The target is the conclusion of the work according to the divine standard, not of ending, nor adequacy, but of perfection.

Perfection is most definitely a state that can only truly be achieved by God, the action of the divine, not simply our own. Perfection, in his eyes, may not be the same as ours either - which is a slight digression and a topic for another time, perhaps.

The good work, rooted in prayer, seeking the divinely-willed conclusion, is to be our goal. Earnest prayer is in itself a sacrifice of time and effort, not too dissimilar to the foundations of a building, I would guess. It leaves time and space for dialogue with God, time for an awareness of our strengths and limitations.

And it's something that I know I don't do even half as often as I should. Maybe in the founding prayer too all the worries about the many tasks which need to be done will reveal those most important to God rather than to us. Or to me.

Word and Play

2008-02-06T17:01:00.000Z

It's one thing to know that you've not blogged awhile, but another to do so.

However my lack of words has been more than matched by a torrent of poetry from my friend David. And so without further ado, another one of his.

Word and Play

If there is
the slightest chance
of getting some play
out of a word,
I will.

For play is exhilarating.
I’m ex-hill.
Over the top.
At any rate,
I love the freedom of the plain.

Plainly,
puns happen
when I’m creative,
coasting,
with the wind behind me.

It can be a bit of a blow to others
when I wind them up.
They’ve been known to say
how peaceful it used to be.

Whether or not the wind changes,
they must brace themselves
for a pair of puns
at a moment’s notice.

My word,
it is inherently clear
that I got this bug from my parents.
To keep generating like this,
and producing a battery of puns
takes training.

So, prepare for the worst.
A nice flow will continue.
You have my word for it.

(C) David Grieve 2008

And with that I must turn to an act of Lenten penance, in folding and stapling the service orders for Ash Wednesday - as if failing to create my own ash and being forced to ask for help (a thing I intensely dislike) were not enough!

Happy New Year. What do you mean, I'm late?

2008-01-24T08:49:00.000Z

Ok, so it's been too long, but nevertheless here's wishes for a happy new year to all readers.

I hadn't realised it had been over a month, but there you are. Somehow I don't think you'll get a blow-by-blow account of all the doings, although for my memory's sake as much as anything else, I will say this: "Treat Midnight Service at Christmas as if it's a Sunday Service and try to rota people to do things. And remember to say thank you for all the things people do do without asking for recognition, and without whom things get rather hairy." You know who you are!

Long time back someone, I think it was Maggi, commented about how good a habit it was to write something daily if you aspired to be a writer, and that blogs were a good medium for that. And it's true. But they aren't the only medium, and since I got enticed into being an administrator for the Eshraval game I occasionally mention, a lot of my spare time has been focussed there. I was on the brink of quitting it entirely just before Christmas, and just before I could sound someone out about it all everything changed. In the week after Christmas serious creativity returned too, which is good news.... even if it does feel like it's waning again in the face of work pressures. (It really is very difficult to do two half jobs without feeling compelled to turn them into two-thirds jobs. It involves learning to stubbornly say "no", ring-fencing your time, being prepared to disappoint people - especially yourself, and accepting your limits.)

Those who know me by now will realise that it's at about this point in the post that I finally get around to what I was going to type, and while I've had a good set of questions from a regular reader over Facebook which I may, or may not answer here (see, I'm not ignoring you), all I really wanted to comment on was this...

It's funny how language works, or is interpreted. For example I saw a van a few days ago identifying itself as belonging to the "Reverse Logistics Division." Now I know, I think, what "logistics" are. But "reverse logistics"?

Is that something about sending the wrong parcel to the wrong person in the wrong place and at the wrong time?

:)

Arabic Hymn of The Nativity

2007-12-22T12:08:00.000Z

Thanks to Andii over at Nouslife for this rather wonderful reminder of the Middle Eastern roots of our faith, as well as the reminder that not all Arabs are Muslims. He writes:

For me the interest is also that this Christian hymn at first sounds like what we associate with the adhan, the call to prayer in a masjid (mosque). And to hear this plays a part, for me, in realising that there is a far more ancient set of traditions that Islam drew on for its religious expressions (another being the prostrations in prayer which probably came from the practice of Byzantine monks in the middle east, in fact I'm actually wondering whether there is mileage in looking at Islam as a form of laicised monasticism).
Anyway, enjoy. And the linguists might also enjoy spotting similarities to Hebrew and odd words and phrases that you recognise from elsewhere.
I'm also interested in the way that essentially static images (mostly icons) are used to give an interesting and helpful 'moving' storyboard.

Nouslife is a wonderful place for things to ponder - check it out.

Facebook: Feelgood or Force for Change

2007-12-18T20:45:00.000Z

It shouldn't come as a surprise to most of my readers that I'm on Facebook - indeed I'm sure some of you have found this blog from it. (After all, the nifty little sitemeter gadget is an efficient little spy...)

Facebook, and other social networking sites like it, often provoke an interesting variety of reactions, from incomprehension through suspicion through avid fandom, and all stages in between. It can be a highly addictive medium, after all. What starts as a simple means of keeping in touch with friends spreads. I must confess to browsing through the lists of my friends friends in the hope of reconnecting with other old friends and acquaintances, and very rewarding it is too.

Then there's a variety of rather simple and simplistic games, all carefully packaged to draw you in further and help you to waste precious time during work hours playing Tetris or Scrabble look-a-likes.

If that wasn't enough there's the opportunity to identify yourself with various pre-existing networks, through the medium of common email addresses from what I can tell, which explains how my only network is EMUT.*

Then there are groups, opportunities to join with folks of a like mind, either by invitation or by random, ranging from the entirely serious through the darkly humorous, the slightly morbid and the gently (or not so gently) ridiculous. There's even causes, which I haven't yet really explored, simply because I don't quite trust anything that purports to donate money simply for membership.

And it's all free. To join costs you nothing, or rather, costs nothing in money. And here, possibly, is the Dark Side. Every application you add gets your personal details in the form of an email address, and the right to look at your other data, so far as I can tell. There have been warnings about grounds for possible identity theft - for example your "friends" can see everything you put there (although there are privacy options), including potentially useful information for stealing your identity, or helping to access other "secure" on-line sites. It wouldn't be too easy to gather details like "pet's name" (a frequent reminder for passwords), or "first school" and the like. Using them wouldn't be so easy, but not that difficult either for the dedicated cyber-criminal.

On top of that there's the danger of what could be termed "cyber-stalking." That old acquaintance you thought so much of a while back? They might (and often do) post all sorts of photographs of themselves. Combine that with a willingness to impart seemingly random information to on-line interviews and your left with a strange mix of permissive voyeurism and the feeling of knowing someone when really you do not.

As usual (and this is typical ENTJ behaviour, I'm led to believe) I've only just reached the point I wanted to post about...

It took me a while to find out about the televisual protest of Archbishop John Sentamu recently. and I'm impressed. A grand act in keeping with the prophetic actions of the Old Testament Prophets. Of itself it will achieve nothing though. That is not cynicism, that is blatant fact. A hardened individual like Robert Mugabe (however charitable or not you may wish to be about him) will not be quaking in his boots as a result.

I am, however, somewhat of a cynical and sceptical bent. So when a Facebook group "York vs Mugabe" sprang up my main question was "is there really any point in my joining this?" Set aside the literal issue of the title, with me not being in York, but what is it. Yes, a bunch of like-minded people, and, forgive my cynicism again, naybe some folks who would like to jump on a bandwagon. Don't get me wrong - I applaud the Archbishop. But the point of the prophetic is to speak a word, that at least in part, brings change. Which brings me back to the original question, "is there really any point in my joining this?" If I don't do something, then the answer is no.

Now all that would be a really rather and negative post if I left it there, but then I stumbled upon this, Power of Facebook affects law.

The question it begs of me, and all of us, is really whether I'm willing to get up and do something, or whether I just sit behind my keyboard pontificating?

(*EMUT - East Midlands University Town)

Keeping up with God

2007-12-17T10:51:00.000Z

Another one of David's poems. And a rather fine one, I think:

*Keeping up with God?* 

Keeping up with God?   
Some hope!
Down to earth,
conceived as an outcast,
he cries as a baby,
eludes a child-killer,
flees as a refugee,
seeks political asylum,
is worshipped as royalty
and marked as elected
but grows in obscurity
and disappears from sight

till, tried and tested, he emerges
to defy expectations,
redefine religion,
reorder hierarchies,
alienate authorities,
rip open disgrace and death
and keep all his promises,
welcoming all respondents.

Keeping up with God?
What a hope!


© David Grieve 2007

Shameless Plug

2007-12-12T10:25:00.000Z

Those of you appreciate the poems my friend David sends me, and then graciously allows me to "publish" here, may appreciate the following:

*Not for Sale*
editors:Carrie Pemberton, Lucy Berry and Alison Myers

Human trafficking is one of the most disturbing realities of life in
modern Europe. Here is a collection of texts for all who want to raise
awareness and make their contribution to ending the suffering of thousands
of innocent victims living on our doorstep.


978 1 905958 11 5 (P) 120pp


Available now from your book seller

Price:  £12.99

This resource book is a fitting contribution to the debate raised on
slavery issues in the bicentenary year of celebrating Wilberforce's
achievements. Slavery continues, not least in the sex trade. It is a well
produced and thought-provoking contribution.

Among the many contributors is Jean Mayland (ex-diocese of Durham) and
yours truly: my two poems *Sex Slavery* and *When Our Hearts are Wintry*
(2007) are included


see https://secure2.cyberware.co.uk/~cb537/acatalog/Living_Faith.html
(scroll down)

David

In Praise of Old Technology

2007-12-12T10:03:00.000Z

When I was young (so much younger than today...) I was always fascinated by one particular piece of cleaning equipment. It was something slightly mysterious, picking up things from the floor with barely a sound and light enough for a primary school-age child to manipulate without falling over power cables or suffering deafening noise.

My wife discovered one a couple of weeks back in pile of stuff literally just thrown out into the street awaiting the rubbish collection. Not only is it nostalgic, but it is efficient, faster to deploy than the vacuum cleaner, promotes vigourous exercise, and most effectively of all, can be used after the children have gone to bed without fear of awakening them.

So praise God for the Blessed Saint Ewbank, the patron of all carpet sweepers!

Hope? We're going to need it.

2007-12-08T17:40:00.000Z

Sermon for this Sunday, Advent 2.

If there is a single word that links all the readings today it's hope.

For Isaiah, speaking to his people, the vision he offers in something that must have seemed nearly impossible – nothing more than the restoration of national fortune after near total catastrophe. Israel was like a tree, cut down to a stump, and yet here was a picture of new-growth wildly greater than what had gone before. It would have been very easy to discount ti at the time because it would have seemed so unlikely. But nevertheless there it is – the promise of new growth and revival that is ultimately understood in the coming of Jesus. Isaiah offers hope in the darkness.

So does John the Baptist to the people of Judea, under the yoke of the powerful empire of Rome. Although his words, are rather less than hope for all. The ordinary people may come after a baptism of repentance, but not the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Indeed John questions what they might hope for, or even hope in. As far as he is concerned they seem to be placing their hope in their lineage as Sons of Abraham, the greatest of the Patriarchs, who received the promise of unnumbered descendants and divine favour.

It's almost the very opposite of John's message. He is calling people to repent. And repentance is a much-misunderstood word. Maybe as part of our preparation and penitence in Advent it's worth pausing to ponder. It doesn't mean being sorry, or even owning up to the gravity of the situation. It is possible to regret, but not to repent.

It's not like a small child saying sorry because they've been told to, the sort of sorrow that isn't particularly real. Repentance is reasoned regret coupled with righteous response. It's about a 180-degree turn of attitude and action. The Highway Code frowns on U-turns, but they bring a smile to the face of God.

John the Baptist sees through the visiting “religious professionals” and challenges them to respond in the strongest of terms. The hope he offers both to them, and to the “ordinary” people is the imminent approach of the coming of God – maybe a little like how we now might understand the Second Coming. The great wrap-up at the End of Time.

John might not have got quite what he expected, but he recognised and knew enough to see Jesus as the one through whom this would all be made manifest – as well as to warn those who leant on their lineage as a shelter from divine judgement.

In Romans we are called to nothing less than a continued hope in Christ. Paul encourages his hearers, and hence us, to engage with three things: The past of our faith – our Bibles, the person of our faith - Jesus Christ, and the people of our faith – each other.

Isaiah's contemporaries maybe didn't know what to hope, other than starting from a recognition that things could only get better.

John's hearers were challenged to put their hope in the grace of God, rather than in their genealogy.

Romans – what hope does that offer? Nothing less than “all joy and peace.” Not though as an abstract something, divorced from reality, but an end that requires something of us, or from us. Paul encourages his readers to an attitude and reality of unity. Not a mere acceptance, but a unity as we follow Christ.

He reminds them of the place of Jesus, the Saviour we await, coming in the sheer ordinariness and humility of a servant to his people. He reminds us that this is a fulfilment of the great hopes of the founding fathers of the Jewish race – a fulfilment of the faith of Abraham.

It's something that goes beyond the old though – the mission of Jesus is that the Gentiles may glorify God. It is so that we, who stand outside the tradition and genealogy of the Jewish people, may come to faith in the God who has revealed himself through them.

But I'd like to return to that word hope. Isaiah's hearers needed something, or somebody, to sort then out and bring them hope in the darkness. The ordinary people who flocked to John the Baptist placed their hopes in the grace and forgiveness of God, even as the religious leaders singularly failed to do so.

And us, what do we hope for? A mended roof? A full church? A healthy bank balance? Even a full-time vicar? Maybe, dare we, ask the question that applied to the Pharisees and Sadducees: in what or who are we hoping? We are offered in Christ the hope of “all joy and peace” - but do we really need it? Do our current straits place us in somewhere where we need to rely on divinely-offered hope?

At the risk of being contentious, if we are happy and content with the status quo, or think that we can solve our own problems, then we do not need hope at all. But if we want our church to be making a difference, both in the village and on the estate we really do need hope.

We need it because the only way forward lies in raising our game, to use a sporting adage. It will require leaving behind some (or more than some) of our comfort. It will involve change, because change is an integral feature of growth.

I think we all know that already, in our heads if not yet in our hearts, but like the difference between regret and repentance it requires action, not just acknowledgement.

Action in using our facilities like the Old Schools to better effect.

In learning and growing in our faith so that we can see and understand how we need to share it with others.

In considering the messages our practices send to those outside our fellowship, and respond accordingly.

And I use the plural, “us” and “our” advisedly, because it can't, won't and shouldn't all come from the vicar. I know that we aren't all going to agree. That's the only thing that is a certainty!

As we prepare for Christmas, the celebration of the Incarnation, the power of heaven infiltrating the grubby realm of humanity let's prepare to grasp, and to respond, to the reasons why the Son of God came. Why it matters. Why we need to respond, individually and corporately.

As God made promises to the Patriarchs to spread his name to the Gentiles so that they would give him glory, so we need to hold on to that promise – that God will be faithful. Faithful in his promise to those outside our circle, our Church family, to our own Gentiles, if you like. That they may come to glorify God for his mercy too.

And to do that we really will need to hope and trust in the power of God, in our place and in our time.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give us a spirit of unity among ourselves as we follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Comparison Shopping

2007-12-05T11:16:00.000Z

It probably says more about me than I'd like to admit, but I took some time this morning (on my day off) to do a little comparison shopping, both getting an idea of prices and engaging in some real spending. And I really rather enjoyed it. Sad, or what?

I'm still in a state of mild shock after a visit to a retail park for some computer gubbins.

I was after decent scanner/copier, a LAN card and a long Ethernet cable (10-15m). I couldn't do a price comparison for the Gigabit LAN card, but the others are rather telling.

Samsung SCX4200 scanner, mono laser copier/printer*:
PC World: £129.98
Staples: £109.99

Belkin 15m CAT6 cable:
PC World: at least £39.99 (labeling somewhat unclear)
Staples: £27.99

£32 difference for 10 minutes research! I can't really understand why there should be such a difference, other than one shop, which busily and loudly touts itself as the place to go for all things computer-related is busy ripping off consumers on peripherals. I didn't do it this time but Maplin seem consistently on the cheaper side too, as long as you know what you're looking for, and maybe that's the key phrase here.

A salutary reminder of the value of just taking a little time. (Perhaps I should go and find a nice book/DVD/RPG...?)

* why this? Firstly I had to leave behind my SCX4100 at my last job - a similar machine that had come as a freebie with a Colour Laser copier. Secondly because I've already got a perfectly decent, if venerable colour inkjet (HP845c). I'm not sure I'd organise it this way if I were starting from scratch, but I'm not.

Why Chocolate Advent Calendars are Evil

2007-12-04T23:16:00.000Z

In an idle moment I've discovered that my college friend Andy''s blog has been laid to rest. I hadn't noticed for a few months, what with the move and having never managed to get a working RSS feed. (Memo to self: set up RSS for this.)

What I did discover is this - in a sort of follow-on endeavour. Read it. It's good and it's thought-provoking, (as well as reminding me, along with other recent events and reading, that I'm really rather theologically and intellectually lazy and lacking in rigour. However, it's one thing to recognise it, it's another to know what to do about it!)

To Be or Not To Be Faithful

2007-12-03T09:38:00.000Z

One of David's marvellous poems: a fine start to the week.

To Be or Not To Be Faithful

Waking from sleep, and not before time,
the alarm has called me to get ready
to join the no beginning and no ending
duty and joy.

The church bells invite one and all
to assemble in
the ever-renewing life form
into which the self-giving Lord pours himself,

Having, apparently, no regard
for the risks involved
or the untidiness created
by entrusting himself to
an in-the-body-experience,
indwelt humanity.

There is, nevertheless,
always the freedom
to turn him down and throw him out,
perhaps allowing him shelter
in some sort of out of sight annexe,

As if hunger, need, fulfilment
and his sheer attractiveness
can ever be completely laid to one side.

© David Grieve 2007

Several anthologies of David's poetry are available. Please contact me for details.

And another thing they don't tell you....

2007-12-01T16:22:00.000Z

Two more illustrations today about the dangers of presumption. Not a grumble, merely the reflections of a green vicar... to remind me and to help any others!

Firstly on a visit to church to do some last minute Advent preparation the comment along the lines of "you do know about so-and-so who broke her hip a few weeks ago?"

Well, no actually. The vicar is, as usual, the last person to know. This is the story of my life, it is nothing new, since on many occasions in several churches and universities I've been faced with a question about why I wasn't at such-and-such's party, leaving me blank-faced and saying "what party?" The only recommendation I can make is to behave as we do do in the Prayer of Humble Access, "we do not presume..." I'd rather have 5 phone calls repeating the information than not know.

Then a chance conversation had by GLW in the florist's while she was picking up some oasis for the Advent wreath the children will be making. "A (former vicar) always orders a Christmas tree for church from me. If you want one this year get your husband to call me today..."

Now, I have to confess, I had never asked about Christmas trees. My curacy ended awhile ago, and was followed by the events in ME19, so any memories from there are a little hazy, and, after all, a group has already volunteered to decorate the church for Christmas "as usual" and muggins here had not thought to ask quite what that might normally entail. To be honest I'm such a Puritan at times that a lack of Christmas tree in church would probably pass un-noticed. I just hope we don't end up with two!

Perhaps all this is why other clergy friends are already getting sick of Christmas, even before Advent has started. Perhaps they actually know what to do!

Oh well, at least I've got the carols chosen for our Carols on Campus on Dec 11th, even if I will only have half an hour to get clear from a funeral that's just come in...

Conviction: Gospel, Political or otherwise

2007-11-29T12:21:00.000Z

A general sentiment from last weeks CU mission seemed to be, when expressed in prayers at least, that conviction is good. More specifically it was the "conviction of sin" and the implicit follow-ons, repentance and salvation. And I have no problems with that, although I must express slight qualms about the phrase which I'm sure I heard, but may have created - the Gospel of Conviction.

Whether I've made it up or not, it's a rather worrying phrase - a linking of "the good news" with guilt. Guilt can be a pretty poor motivator - but that's for another post...

As I sit and ponder here it strikes me that conviction can be addressed in several ways. We have the phrase about having the courage of our convictions, something which I was wresting with a little this week. If I truly believe that change for the parish lies in the engagement with the majority population group who have very little to do with the church then I need to respond, and to encourage the congregations to respond too. The difficulty of course is that the changes of practice, and maybe more importantly changes in attitude, which might be required would certainly lead us out of our "comfort zone" and further into a "risky adventure" of faith.

It takes a serious degree of courage to step out from the familiar and the expected. It doesn't matter whether it's personal or institutional, it still means being open to dramatic change.

One illustration of this I discovered browsing the BBC news website earlier this week about the plans of the One Laptop Per Child initiative. It would appear that this laudable goal is being stifled, perhaps inevitably, by politics.

"You've got to be big, you've got to be bold. And what has happened is that there has been an effort to say 'don't take any risks - just do something small, something incremental'."

"It feels safe but by definition what you are ensuring is that nothing happens."

The words of Professor Bender might well apply to any number of issues, not least the Church of England, at both a national as well as a parochial level. It partly explains why I sometimes feel that the only way ahead for the Church of England is for it to die. As the example of the Cross shows, for Resurrection there has a to first be a death - with all the pain and grief that comes as part of the package. Another risky question is to ask whether that death has to be a lingering one or should be speeded up by an act of mercy.

The Gospel reading on Sunday (Luke 23: 33-43) reminded us of Jesus words on the Cross to the thief who had the clarity of insight, maybe spurred by the impending inevitability of death, to recognise Jesus for who he was, so prompting him to ask "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus' promise of paradise didn't remove the thief from his cross. It didn't stop the suffering - but it did transform the context.

Any comforts we might take from our faith, that the victory is won, still take their place within the context of an ongoing struggle. The greater need for wisdom lies in knowing which parts of the struggle are relevant in the economy of the Kingdom, and which are actually a waste of resources. To prune the butterfly bush down to the stump each winter looks cruel and excessive, but without it it fails to grow properly. Even the act recorded in John 19: 31-33 of the soldiers breaking the legs of the crucified is an act of mercy. It's not an infliction of needless pain but a means of speeding a long-drawn out death.

If I truly am convinced (convicted) about the rightness of a fact or a course of action then that needs to be set in motion. Conviction of sin, or of the rectitude of a policy or statement, demands a response. It is not enough to say something, but to do something. The thief on the cross expressed it as a request. Overseas governments need to honour the promises they have made to the OLPC program.

To enable action there has to be a reason, an incentive, a "carrot". I have to not only be convinced that a radical change of course is necessary, but to have a clear vision of the benefits, enough to outweigh any personal or institutional resistance to such a change. That is my stumbling block.

Likewise, my worry about the "Gospel of Conviction" that can so easily be heard in Mission activity, is that too often it becomes closer to the declaration of guilt and judgement by a court, where the condemned has nothing appealing to look forward to, rather than acknowledging that for many people they are already weighed down by a conviction of guilt, real or imagined. The Gospel has to offer a means of transformation and escape. It has truly to be seen as Good News. And maybe for that we need to work rather harder at unpacking the value and relevance, in contemporary terms, of the salvation, the healing of the human-divine and human-human relationships, brought about by the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God, and rather les on the burden of sin.

A little intimidating...

2007-11-27T21:15:00.000Z

I know that I'm often a little slow in writing the obligatory "Christmas Letter" but receiving 2 today, before Advent even begins, and from fellow clergy families, is a little intimidating!

I mean, it's nice to hear the news, but even so... :)

In the absence of a piece of theological reflection...

2007-11-27T15:59:00.000Z

... which I've left on my USB flash drive in the Chaplaincy, here's a brief record (no pun intended) of my current listening.

For the first time in months I bought a new CD recently - or more specifically a double CD, Long Road Out Of Eden, by The Eagles. It's a slightly scary thought that I'm rather too young to appreciate much of the original material they did, before they all got fed up with each other, but I do have fond memories of their "Best of.." collection. So, having heard that, and a litle artsy piece on Radio 4 I went out of my way to buy the new one.

In some ways I was vaguely disappointed at first, since I'm not so hot on the "sorry girl it's over" sorts of songs which seem to dominate the first CD, but with further thought I rather like it. The wistfulness of tracks like "No more walks in the wood" and "I love to watch a woman dance" are rather good, especially the first, with hints of regret at the past that has gone (maybe something corporately felt by the band?) But if I don't like some of the "lovey" stuff, then I do appreciate the questioning and gentle world-weariness of "Business as Usual" and "Frail Grasp of the Big Picture" How could I fail to appreciate words like this?

"And we pray to our Lord, who we know is American.
He reigns from on high; he speaks to us through middlemen.
And he shepherds his flock
We sing out and praise his name.
He supports us in war; he presides over football games.
And the right will prevail; all our troubles shall be resolved.
We hold faith above all, unless there's money or sex involved."

Best of all, by a long way to my mind, is the title track and its questioning of American involvement in Iraq. Ten minutes of beautiful production and insightful lyrics. Listen to it and make you own mind up.

Is it the best thing since sliced bread? No. But it mixes easy melodic listening with biting insight, perfect guitar with a touch of faded hippydom and weighs in at a very reasonable price.

But it's fine to agree with the critics of the nation the world loves to hate... can we see the planks in our own eyes? Wwe too, are on the Long Road Out of Eden, and probably driving away...

A sad reflection?

2007-11-25T14:31:00.000Z

No, I'm not particularly upset (although some might say I was a sad individual!) In fact I wonder if a reflection can have any emotions after all, since it is virtual. But that's not the point either.

I was just idling away the time reading something on the BBC web-site, to wit, some information trailing the new BBC series "The Blair Years" which starts tonight (2215 GMT). Information about how the former PMs faith influenced his politics.

What prompted my musings was the following quote:

The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they'd known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism," Sir Menzies said.

Now, I'm very aware that I can be cynical. But I find it a very sad reflection on the state of our collective identity, and "health" as a nation, if Ming is right. Then again, the prevailing post-modern mantra that 'if it works for you then it's right' is surely, if nothing else, a triumph of pragmatism over conviction. A bit like those who pinch lead off church roofs in pursuit of fast money. Most of my congregation can't really get their heads around the phenomenon, so it must be a generational thing. I expect nothing less, they find it hard to conceive that anyone would do such a thing. Another away win for pragmatism...

A Good Day

2007-11-20T16:39:00.000Z

I don't think I have ever received a phone call from the Police before. Not, you might think, very good news.

Now, there are very few things which are unadulterated good news. After all, even the Good News, involved death, grief and separation as a necessary part of the package. So, having more of the South Aisle awash on a rainy day cannot be construed as especially good.

But for the ladies and gentlemen of the Northamptonshire Constabulary (or whatever their "correct" term may be) to nab five individuals and their stolen van red-, or should I say, lead-handed, is most definitely good news!

So thank you to the eagle-eyed member of the community for your vigilance, and when I know who you are I will be turning on your doorstep to say that personally.

Well, I did pray half-seriously yesterday morning for some angles to be stationed on the roof, and some of my clergy colleagues joined in prayer later in the day too. Now all I need to pray for is a dry spell... or some more buckets.

Who? Me?

2007-11-19T21:06:00.000Z

I've decided to de-anonymise myself. St. Z's will still be afforded a degree of protection, as will EMUT. Continuing bloggers already know me, and anyone who tries hard enough can get round the pseudonymity, so what's the point? The vast majority of my readers (who understand this strange twin beast of faith and church) don't find anything new, anyway.

Do they mean me?

2007-11-19T20:59:00.000Z

Went to a very worthwhile "Bishops' day for Clergy" today - the EMUT one, not the Small University City one. I had a New Incumbents Induction thing last week (I may have commented on it) at which I expressed mild concern about appearing to be the youngest there. So today I was very politely asked my age by the DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands, I you must know)... which I did - after all it may be impolite to ask a lady her age, but it may also be impolite to refuse when asked!

Her response was one of near-delight. Something like "O good, we may have to have a talk..."

It turns out that I could help in their drive to ~~scare-off~~, sorry, to recruit "young ordinands." I do not think of myself as "young" - but the diocese apparently do. "Anyone under 45."

Oh deary, deary me....

Lest we forget

2007-11-18T12:43:00.000Z

Remembrance has been and gone again for another year - and this year was the first time I've conducted such events on my own and in a church. First there was the curacy and then there was the whole business of being building-less.

So here are some points as a sort of aide-memoire and reflection, which I hope I'll remember, and may be useful for any soon-to-be-first-time incumbents.

First though: the general principle. It will be presumed that you, as the vicar, know what you are doing. This is a double-edged sword. It reflects the community's trust in you, while at the same time making it potentially difficult to actually ask. Despite the fact that nearly all churches will claim to be the same everywhere is different, of course.

If you have a 10'o'clock service and the expectation of being at the War Memorial for 11am, the following may be of use. (Bearing in mind the perils involved with changing anything, which is a general clerical hazard in the first place!)

- do you really need all three readings? Could you get by with only two, especially bearing in mind that the sermon may well need to be truncated?

- unless your channels of communication are especially good (text messages from the choir, perhaps) don't rely on the Sunday School being able to hear the bell sounded during the consecration. In fact, do you need Sunday School that day?

- can you escape with shorter hymns (leaving aside some of the potential theological questions inherent in some of the words)?

Maybe the biggest question of all: Given the emotional resonances for many in the congregation and very real memories of friends, parents and loved ones' involvement and sacrifice in conflict (although these are generally declining as a simple function of ageing) how do you sensitively address the issue that Remembrance Sunday is not a Christian Commemoration per se? The Lectionary and Calendar make passing reference in allowing variation of the Collect, but the readings are part of the "Before Advent" series.

But maybe that's for another day.

Mixed Blessings

2007-11-17T12:38:00.000Z

Isn't it strange how many ways and contexts there are in which the word blessing or blessed crops up? Maybe more often than not it can be a euphemism or a platitude. To a sneeze we reply "Bless you!" We use it to substitute for something like blasted or damned, and make the problem sound like it's welcome. I'm not quite sure of the reasoning, unless it's simple Bowdlerism. Possibly trying to sanctify something and bring it to the attention of the power of God. Maybe Jesus is the ultimate Blessed Nuisance - certainly in the eyes of the First Century Religious Establishment, and maybe even for ourselves and our own.

As a priest I am empowered to pronounce God's blessing. It isn't mine to give after all... I stand in loco Deorum. (I trust my Latin is up to scratch!) Which makes me wonder why we use oils blessed by the bishop (or should it be blessed through the agency of the bishop?) when a word uttered by the priest would do. I suspect it's a matter of ecclesiology and a recognition of the primacy of the bishop.

In the last couple of weeks I've had two very different offices of blessing to perform, both at relatively short notice and both slightly euphemistic in origin. One for and over a relationship in what is technically referred to as an Act of Dedication after a Civil Marriage - a most definitely desired relationship between two persons. And the other over an unwanted presence of relationship in the form of a house blessing - a request for an outpouring of God's cleansing power and the eviction of any other-worldly and negatively-orientated presence.

In both cases they were "firsts", if you don't count trying to bless my previous Vicarage - and even that was more often in the form of words closer to those allegedly used by Cromwell to dismiss the Rump Parliament: "Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Interestingly enough my curacy prepared me for neither of these eventualities, despite proving of great general value.

However, I suppose I should depart from this virtual location - and head back to the more practised, but rather less-interesting, act of sermon preparation...

2007-11-03T13:24:00.000Z

Well, things are beginning to hot up here in EMUT, with this week having my first external preaching slot, my first attempt at doing something a little more pro-active in the Chaplaincy, and that old mainstay of Anglican ministry - funerals - beginning to appear. Stir in Halloween and a Chaplaincy Guest Lecture and it's quite a potent mix.

St. Z's has a close link with the adjoining parish, which once upon a Victorian time was actually a daughter church, so in the great tradition of good neighbourliness when I was invited to preach there I jumped at the opportunity, and then fretted and struggled to produce something for All Souls - a celebration that I see as pastorally valuable but sometimes theologically dubious. An occasion for those who have lost a loved one (or any or, often, no apparent, faith) to seek solace and comfort in the bosom of the church they don't attend. Please excuse my slight cynicism as I betray my rather intolerant evangelical roots, but there's no point in denying it. Ultimately it all went rather well, a chance to act like a curate again, having a part, but not the lead role in the great drama of the liturgy. Several hours of fretting had produced two-thirds of a sermon, or to put it the other way, left one third inspiration required. And praise God he delivered and didn't let me down. I set great store on careful preparation, and know that I don't always reach the standard I set myself, but sometimes just "reading" the congregation can tell you so much, as can listening to the hymns chosen and the words used, especially if you've not been part of the process.

Chaplaincy can still only be described as mixed. The ministry of hospitality and encounter is rewarding, like the 2 dozen students who turned up for free tea in the foyer of the arts campus 5 minutes before I was going to wheel my trolley away. Good for community presence and feel-good factor, good for showing practical Christian love in action, but rather less, at least as yet, for meaningful engagement. Likewise, having, decided based on observation and a little discussion, to start up "Thursday Soulspace", providing an explicit chance for tea and chat followed by a simple opportunity for prayer together I sat alone in the Chaplaincy for a complete 2 hour period. It's easy to say that "it takes time" but rather harder to sit through it A bit like being "stood up" by the representative of a charismatic evangelical group of mixed repute busy trying to re-enter the Christian mainstream on Friday lunch time. The fact I was feeling distinctly unwell probably didn't help, but even so. (And to be charitable, they could have emailed an apology, but since the Wireless Access Point the Chaplaincy uses has gone down we wouldn't have received it!)

Halloween proved a delightful damp squib from the domestic viewpoint, although a house lakccng a sign and possessed of a decent gate, not to mention official No Trick or Treat posters, might have something to do with it. As it happened I was out (on my day off) at an excellent Chaplaincy Guest Lecture on "Sexuality, Scripture and Psychology". The turn out was better than I anticipated, but primarily drawn from the town rather then the uni, which is a shame. It would have been nice to have a good mix. The speaker, coming from the Roman Catholic tradition, took some material I'd heard before, but never really engaged with, and produced a compellingly-argued synthesis about relationships, both human and divine, in the context their application to the two great commandments. I'm now eagerly awaiting the book to be published next year by Gracewing. It reminded me that I don't really do enough "proper" theology.

On the funeral front I'm going to have to cope with twin issues of the long-term association of individuals with the former incumbent and their desire for his involvement alongside the fact of only working half-time and finding a list of willing substitute clergy for those occasions when I'm not available. It will work through, in time, just like the requests for marriages from outside the parish based on "pretty-building-syndrome."

Do I have enough hours in the day? No. Do I have enough energy? No. Do I have enough experience? Don't know. Am I enjoying it, and sure that God has called me here? Oh, yes!

Wrestling

2007-10-29T14:39:00.000Z

I don't think it's because I still haven't got used to the change of day off, but today is proving rather hard. In fact I think there are two much more obvious reasons.

The first is the curious practice (in my experience) for LM's school to have an INSET day today. For all I know it might well make a lot of sense on the ground. Since the idea of punctuality, or even attendance, down there seems a slightly alien concept to some families, it might well be a case of making the most of a bad job. After all when HM Inspectors judge attendance figures why not cut you cloth to suit? Why have another bad day's figures when you can turn it to your advantage?

It might be good for the school (and LM seems to be enjoying herself) but it's not quite such good news when you work from home. Instead of the sounds of family and one toddler I have instead the sounds of family, one toddler and the addition of a (rather loud, exuberant and stroppy) school-daughter. I can barely contain my enthusiasm...

On top of that, although I feel I'm beginning to get into the swing of things parochial, I have two sets of sermons to prepare this week. The invitation to preach in the neighbouring parish in the middle of the week makes a lot of sense, as St Z's has good links in place, and I'm all in favour of sharing where possible. The only downside is that All Souls isn't really my cup of tea. As is so often the case the Lectionary readings are intended to bring comfort to the faithful, laced with challenge too; an issue multiplied by the perennial problem of the Church of England being "everyone's church" (whether they like it or not!)

This makes at least one of the readings uncomfortable, full as it is of the assurances of salvation and new birth as well as the readers rejoicing in their sufferings. Er.. yes. Right. Exactly. A perfect text for the recently bereaved parishioners. It's all an uncomfortable reminder that much scripture pre-supposes a given degree of faith among those it addresses - unless it's the judgements of doom from a certain constituency of a prophetic persuasion!

Time to be reminded about the wonderful definition of "priest" in the witty "Church-English Dictionary" - someone who gives God ten out of ten and humanity the benefit of the doubt.

If Jesus can do that for us, then I must, of course, do that for him. Just sometimes, well, it's a bit of a stretch, trying to pull the punches which are already there in the text...

Enough. Back to the task in hand, and maybe a cup of tea!

A word in season?

2007-10-23T21:54:00.000+01:00

Words. Sometimes they're very useful things. Sometimes they're very powerful things. Sometimes they are best said, not written. Sometimes they won't come at all.

That's the problem with words. Without visual cues the written word can appear far sharper, un-blunted by the smile or the tone of delivery.

So, thank you, you know who you are, for a quiet word. In person, visible. I shall continue with these words, they are the sea I swim in, but I will remember a little more that I am being read close to home as well as far from it.

No offence is ever meant. I wouldn't deliberately be like that. But humour does have a sharp edge, and like any knife must be wielded with care. (Or maybe reserved for the truly anonymous blog - the one I rarely ever write in... )

All I need now are some decent, useful, observations to make!

Swine time!

2007-10-15T17:12:00.000+01:00

Not a reflection on anybody or anything, just something I found.

Me want (but not if I have to give up pork and cider!)

:)

Happy Birthday, St. Z's

2007-10-13T23:24:00.000+01:00

Just back from a hugely enjoyable evening at St Z's, namely a Jazz Concert with the rather good "Swing Museum" - 2 guitars, double bass and violin, so shades of Django Reinhardt and Stefan Grapelli. An evening of popular music (of a certain era) in a full-ish church. Not a bad way to draw the 800th birthday celebrations towards a close.

I suppose the key observation is that people don't really change. Much of the audience tonight was the Youth Fellowship.... of 60 years ago. Not good for the future of the church, but I wonder what the folks of an equivalent youth group age of today would have thought to see them mucking around, despite grey hair and all the encumbrances of age? Maybe rather how I felt at 18 to have the privilege of an evening with Dad's old uni friends and discovering to my surprise and delight that they were no different to me and my friends.

If we can find a way for those "outside" to see something of the love of the people at St. Z's we'd be half way there. I don't know where the faith of the folks is, but who apart from God really does? All I know is that I'm called to love them, to spiritually lead them, and to learn from them. The Festival Week they've put on has been excellent (with slight reservations about the scope of the publicity). They have done everything without a vicar to hold their hands, and done it very well. I'm trying very hard to not take the credit, although I'm beginning to wonder whether they think I'm just trying to be humble. But the truth is I've actually had very little to do, other than show up and show love. To tell them they matter.

And having one of the younger members (read 60-something) announce during the interval that we'd won the rugby.... well, a good evening was had by one and all! :)

Lead Astray

2007-10-09T22:02:00.000+01:00

Given the recent epidemic in which enterprising individuals have taken it upon themselves to emulate Henry VIII and "mine" ecclesiastical buildings for their valuable base metals, I was unsurprised to be informed that St. Z's had received their attentions in the last few months.

I knew that the you could see daylight through the roof of the South Porch, but since it isn't used didn't think it was much of a problem at this juncture. I'd also been told that the situation elsewhere was in hand.

Guess what?

It rained this morning.

It rained a lot this morning.

I discovered not just that the roof of the South Aisle missed lead, but that I'd been mislead too.

You can guess what's coming, can't you?

I had presumed in my naivety that someone had at least laid some temporary sheeting! What a silly Priest-in-Charge I am! Instead Morning Prayer (for one) was conducted accompanied by the sound of many waters....

Laugh? I nearly (got) wet myself!

Monday Musings

2007-10-08T15:57:00.001+01:00

It's one of those days.

You know, when the sermon that you know you wrote some years back for this Sunday's readings can't be found on your computer.

When someone asks to be your friend on Facebook, and although you know the mutual friend, and a lot of their friends besides, you can't quite work out who it is, because teenagers look so different when you've not seen them for 4 years.

So I ambled down to look around my new Vestry. It's like a time-warp in there! Minute books from 30 years ago agreeing to the purchase of "Sound of Living Waters" while at the same time asking for the re-instatement of Matins because it disappeared after the last inter-regnum. Little booklets of Series 2 Evening Prayer. Sheet music that looks positively Antediluvian (before the flood, for non-Latin scholars!). A cupboard full of ASBs, which I suspect everyone's forgotten about. (And that's not mentioning the 2 manual electronic organ, the random pieces of masonry, service registers for the last 30 years and the stubs of a book of Marriage Certificates with no entries)!

Which means that the headline in the Diocesan email I just received was all the more amusing:
Sponsored BCP Palm Reading. Saturday 27^th October from 2pm. St P's Church, ...

Well, it's one approach to getting into the Mind, Body and Spirit Fair, I suppose. I'll have to recommend it Steve Hollingshurst!

Back in the frame

2007-10-04T10:41:00.000+01:00

Well, here I am in the Chaplaincy Office on Park Campus of EMUT (East Midlands University Town), and thoroughly enjoying the delights of dual-role ministry. There's denying that it will get busier, but it's just so good to be back in the Uni environment!

Yesterday was the Freshers' Fair, traditionally the time when student organisations tout for business - and often with a bewildering range of societies available for the (in)discriminating student. This turned out to be a little different. While there was a marquee, broadcasting music that everyone but me seemed to know, which was hosting the sporting societies (including Cheerleading!) and information on nightclubs, the Sports Hall seemed to be more a case of business organisations touting for students - which struck me as a little bizarre.

The Christian Union had a presence, with a natty line in blue on blue sweatshirts (or were they hoddies?), as did the LGBT Society and the Afro-Carribean Students, but it felt far more like everyone else was trying to advise, recruit or sell their services. I'm still not quite sure what the Casino was doing there! I hope they were simply recruiting potential employees, but I didn't have the nous to follow that up at the time...

In retrospect it was all, I don't know, rather worthy: health and fitness, sexual health, teachers' unions trying to recruit, the local pizza delivery franchise, a little polite political activism, and a spattering of Green issues. Which raises the question - don't students actually have fun any more, beyond the sports field, the bar and the bed?

Maybe not. Especially as a news story caught my eye recently over the BBC website about how UK students work fewer hours per week than their European counterparts. Given that, you might expect there to be more of a social life, but with the Uni running a Part-Time Jobs Fair today, which recommends that students work up to 20 hours a week in part-time emplyment (thats right - 20 hours!) and coupled with the pressure to pay for tuition fees...

Then again, it might have a lot to do with the changing nature of universities. This isn't a high profile national institution, although I'm sure they'd be delighted if it was. Talking to folks suggests very strongly that a lot of students have come from little more than an hour away in any direction, not forgetting the increasing numbers of mature students and those living at home.

Well, I'd been told that EMUT is different!

Unfortunately, not all that different, though. Our Chaplaincy Centre is in an excellent location on the gournd floor of a hall of residence, very close to the Student Union. Which is good. Except that one of the residents directly above is playing rap at an aggressively high volume and it's beginning to get annoying... It might soon just be time to go walkabout and engage in random conversations and a ministry of presence - which in itself is wonderful - and certainly better than the nascent headache!

(Of course, as soon as I wrote that, God be praised, the "music" stopped! - and I found an interesting article to complement this rambling over on the good old Beeb.)

As to where faith fits into these ruminations, well I'll leave the theological refelctions till after lunch. If that is, I get no visitors wanting hospitality.

A Fresh Start

2007-09-30T15:08:00.000+01:00

The last few weeks have been ones of stress, excitement, getting lost, being found, endings and beginnings. From My Little Part of Kent (MLPK) to East Midlands University Town (EMUT). From trying to build a church from scratch to inheriting a wonderful example of a village church (even if the village has long ago been swallowed up by the town!) From leading hymns and choruses on guitar to organ, choir and sung Common Worship (traditional language) Communion!

First, at least officially*, there was the Licensing and Induction, a wonderful example of splendid Anglican pomp, never quite straying into farce. The language of licenses, redolent of learning and genteel antiquity,

"A Bishop of B commissary for this purpose of the Right Reverend Father in God D by divine permission Lord Bishop of E to our beloved in Christ F Greeting... "

and so on. Not forgetting the organist trying to manfully cope with unfamiliar hymns, the robed choir, whose number failed to exceed the fingers of one hand, the not-quite-yet priest-in-charge's children whooping it up in the vestry with loud shouts and banging of doors in the quietest parts of the service.

And, of course, the wonderfully symbolic trip around the church, with parishioners and voluntereed others giving significant things.

"Look, it's key! We never open that door."
"Bet you've never seen a more monstrous font in your life. Have some water."
"Here, have your Bible back. We don't have any printed less than 40 years ago."
"Do you ever use the oil stock?"
"Here's the liturgy book. Shame most of it was written last century" (the latter presented by a "Young Person" - who retired 2 years ago!)

All followed by a lovely bunfight and ordeal by tea for the Vicar's wife and offspring! Thank God for in-laws!

Against that the life of a University, even some of the more potentially wild students like the Freshers who will have spent their entire grant on beer before next week's out, against that... well, there's just no competition.

(*in other words I'd already been up to practical stuff at the Uni helping with the stress of enrolment... on the prospective students' parents).

There followed a week of trying to sort out a routine for my two-hattedness - a different day off for the first time in 6 years, which feels very weird. Discovering what had and had not been left behind by the previous incumbent (to wit one photocopier and a complete absence of Baptism records for a decade!) Trying to work out quite who does what, when and where, and why the Treasurer's job is a three-way job share, or ....

You get the picture.

Last Sunday, when the rubber really hit the road, I had very nice and relaxed 8am Communion, although it would have been nice to know that it was in the Lady Chapel rather sooner than 2 minutes before the service, and the interesting experience of sung CW traditional language Communion. It made a refreshing change, but at same time it was symptomatic of everything that I dislike about the dear old Church of England - obscure hymns, love of ritual, the dust of years! I have promised myself that I won't deliberately upset the applecart or suggest making any changes for a few months.

Which explains two things: why I am writing this blog (and other notes to myself) - so that I don't become so familiar with the way things are that I forget... and why I (and St. Z's - not it's real dedication) are remaining pretty much anonymous this time round!

The Name

2007-09-30T14:52:00.000+01:00

So, here it is, the front page of a new blog. A new beginning, in all senses of the word.

The name? Well, that's not too difficult. Being a normal mortal I have but the one head, while being a Christian I also have the one head, the one I serve in Jesus Christ. But I have two jobs, two hats to wear, those of parish priest and university chaplain.

Two Hats, One Head.